Link swapping used to be a simple concept that just meant two webmasters could scratch each other’s back by placing a link on their websites, pointing to each other’s site, for mutual benefit in the
search engine’s eyes.
This definition became inadequate when Google decided that this kind of swapping, although not actually bad enough to deserve punishment, was only done in fact to influence their rankings, and so they made some algorithm changes that complicated things for us.
The premise is simple, mainly because Google and the other big Search Engines see all incoming links to a website as a “vote” for that site’s popularity. (The PageRank method.) Webmasters quickly adapted and put up a link directory on each of their websites to automate the link-swapping of that site with other webmasters. This method has largely lost its’ effectiveness, however.
Google has proclaimed that one-way links were MUCH more important, and only then if they were for sites in the same niche or a closely-related topic.
If your website is about Penguins, then having some rude spammer come and post his Viagra or Online Degree Program (or any other non-animal topics at all, really) links in your directory will bring down the wrath of Googlebot on your site in no time… Certainly before you get a chance to intervene and weed out the offending links.
Overnight, millions of link directories became useless or even hurtful to their web ranking because while trying to build them up as large as possible, webmasters simply allowed links from other websites on topics other than their own to swap links with them.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t use an automated link directory anymore, but if you do, you’ll want to manually verify each posting to ensure every linkswap is on topic.
If you’re still manually trading links with a few choice websites, especially the most authoritative sites in your niche, or at least the ones with the highest PageRank in your niche, and not using an automated link directory, you’ll be in good shape.
Here’s a great, free link directory script that you can install to your own website, however you really should be careful to limit your linkswapping to other sites in you immediate market niche:
http://instantblogsubscribers.com/?w=fluzz
This method has its critics, however, and some webmasters won’t even use a directory anymore because its obvious structure should be a real giveaway to Googlebot about what its purpose is. These are usually the same people who would say that you must link 3 or more sites in a circle, instead of just two.
However there has been no evidence that this works any better, as Googlebot can just as easily follow three sites linked as it can two sites.
This definition became inadequate when Google decided that this kind of swapping, although not actually bad enough to deserve punishment, was only done in fact to influence their rankings, and so they made some algorithm changes that complicated things for us.
The premise is simple, mainly because Google and the other big Search Engines see all incoming links to a website as a “vote” for that site’s popularity. (The PageRank method.) Webmasters quickly adapted and put up a link directory on each of their websites to automate the link-swapping of that site with other webmasters. This method has largely lost its’ effectiveness, however.
Google has proclaimed that one-way links were MUCH more important, and only then if they were for sites in the same niche or a closely-related topic.
If your website is about Penguins, then having some rude spammer come and post his Viagra or Online Degree Program (or any other non-animal topics at all, really) links in your directory will bring down the wrath of Googlebot on your site in no time… Certainly before you get a chance to intervene and weed out the offending links.
Overnight, millions of link directories became useless or even hurtful to their web ranking because while trying to build them up as large as possible, webmasters simply allowed links from other websites on topics other than their own to swap links with them.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t use an automated link directory anymore, but if you do, you’ll want to manually verify each posting to ensure every linkswap is on topic.
If you’re still manually trading links with a few choice websites, especially the most authoritative sites in your niche, or at least the ones with the highest PageRank in your niche, and not using an automated link directory, you’ll be in good shape.
Here’s a great, free link directory script that you can install to your own website, however you really should be careful to limit your linkswapping to other sites in you immediate market niche:
http://instantblogsubscribers.com/?w=fluzz
This method has its critics, however, and some webmasters won’t even use a directory anymore because its obvious structure should be a real giveaway to Googlebot about what its purpose is. These are usually the same people who would say that you must link 3 or more sites in a circle, instead of just two.
However there has been no evidence that this works any better, as Googlebot can just as easily follow three sites linked as it can two sites.
No comments:
Post a Comment